Prospective Comparison of Topical Moxifloxacin in Eliminating Conjunctival Bacterial Flora Following a One-Day or One-Hour Application

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of a 1-hour(h) versus 1-day application of topical moxifloxacin in eliminating conjunctival bacterial flora. In this prospective, nonrandomized, controlled trial, the surgical eyes of 60 patients scheduled for intraocular surgery received topical moxifloxacin four times a day, starting 1 day prior to surgery and three additional applications at 5-minute intervals 1 h before surgery. The nonsurgical eye of each patient only received three applications of the same antibiotic at 5-minute intervals 1 h before surgery. Conjunctival cultures were obtained at baseline and after antibiotic application. Prior to antibiotic application, 80% of surgical eyes and 70% of nonsurgical eyes had positive cultures. Following the 1-day application, significantly fewer eyes (40%) had positive cultures (P < 0.0001), with a further reduction to 32% with three additional doses 1 h prior to surgery. In the nonsurgical eye, the decrease in the percentage of positive cultures, from 55% to 53% following the three applications 1 h prior to surgery, was not significant (P > 0.9999). The 1-day application was associated with significantly fewer positive cultures, compared to the 1-h group (P = 0.0267). The one-day application of moxifloxacin resulted in significantly fewer positive conjunctival cultures, compared with a 1-h application.